History Main / TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Used in tandem with CompressedAdaptation. It takes 6 days for Galadriel and a critically injured Halbrand to gallop from the Anduin region west of Mordor to Eregion. A somewhat similar journey in Tolkien's works - Boromir travelling alone from Minas Tirith to Rivendell, but losing his horse halfway - takes almost four months, and Gandalf in Shadowfax is able to reach The Shire from Rohan - roughly half the distance - in six days.

* This frequently happens in the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' films, due to squashing down the events of the books (which followed a fairly realistic schedule for the journeys and distances involved, with events regularly being separated by days or weeks). The most glaring example is Gandalf's journey to Isengard in ''Fellowship'' where he manages to get to there before Frodo and Sam even leave the Shire after they depart Bag End at the same time (in the book, Frodo waits a few months before leaving the Shire after Gandalf's departure). Another odd example is the film addition of the Marchwardens at Helm's Deep, which arrive right before the battle; meaning they would have had to leave Lorien right after the Fellowship and before they knew there was even going to be a battle. Elrond manages to get from hundred of miles away in Rivendell to Dunharrow just in time to give Aragorn the reforged Anduril. Likewise desite it being repeatedly mentioned that it takes three days to get to Minas Tirith from Edoras, Theoden and his army manage to make it in two days.

SisterTrop of WeaponRunningTime, when a projectile's time to hit its target is long enough for things to happen. See also {{Overdrive}}, FasterThanLightTravel, ConversationCut, OffscreenTeleportation, TransformationAtTheSpeedOfPlot. Traveling at the speed of the plot may also be why there are NoDelaysForTheWicked.

This trope is sometimes referred to as 'jet packing'.

See also {{Overdrive}}, FasterThanLightTravel, ConversationCut, OffscreenTeleportation, TransformationAtTheSpeedOfPlot. Traveling at the speed of plot may also be why there are NoDelaysForTheWicked.

* The Disney animated version of ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' falls prey to this one. Prince Philip returns from the woods where he has met the girl of his dreams. When his father shows disinterest, Philip spurs his horse around and leaves at a gallop. Between that moment and his arrival at the cottage, the good fairies inform the girl that she is a princess and escort her back to the castle on foot, night falls, and the evil sorceress arrives at the cottage to set a trap for him. Notice also that Philip makes it back to the castle in less time than it takes Aurora to get back to the cottage from her errand, unless we are to assume these events are purposely presented out of order.

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has the Amazing Spooky Path of Variable Length. It is unclear how close to the village Beast's castle (which, apparently, none of the villagers have seen before) is, since depending on the requirements of the plot, it seems to take characters between five minutes and several days to travel between the two. For instance, while Maurice manages to wander aimlessly about in search of the castle for long enough to catch pneumonia, Gaston and his mob move from the village to the castle ''in the space of a single song.'' Of course, it also isn't clear whether Belle spends three days or three months at the castle.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', it takes Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey several days to get to Far Far Away. Later in the movie, when the supporting cast finds out that the group is in trouble, they get there in just a few hours. It's implied that perhaps the supporting guys were riding on Dragon and Dragon is capable of flying at a much faster speed than a typical horse-drawn carriage is able to travel. Worse in ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'', Shrek travels the distance between his home and Far Far Away three times within less than a day.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': When the various Titans awaken, their locations are given; with Methuselah in Munich, Scylla in Arizona, Behemoth in Rio de Janeiro, and a new female [=MUTO=], which WordOfGod states was underneath Hoboken, New Jersey. Despite originating thousands of miles apart, [[spoiler:they all make it to Boston at the exact same time, despite Methuselah and possibly Behemoth needing to make ocean crossings, Scylla needing to cross North America, and the new female MUTO being only two small states away. Furthermore, there were two other Titans in Washinginton, DC., and both make it to Boston several hours ahead of the others.]]

* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': The cargo ship gets from Isla Nublar, somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica, to somewhere in Northern California in a single night. That's a journey of roughly four thousand miles in a vessel that has a maximum speed of about 45 mph (which it can't maintain for long periods of time) in less than 12 hours. Even if they could have sustained that speed, it should have taken roughly four days plus the time it would have taken to actually get the ship unloaded (a lengthy process even if they'd bribed everyone involved to expedite things and not ask questions), plus the time required to get the dinosaurs from whatever dock they used to the remote mansion where the final act was set.

** If the connecting flights lined up perfectly, she would need a whole day either way just to get from New York City to Lima and from there to either Iquitos, Pucallpa, or Puerto Maldonado.

*** These examples could be partially justified by the fact that knowing the seas you're sailing or having special technologies matters a lot in the world of One Piece. For example, Marine ships are coated in seastone, making them able to cross the Calm Belts that would otherwise be deadly monster-ridden areas, allowing for excellent shortcuts to and from the Grand Line. One imagines that at least Shichibukai and Yonkou have something similar or equivalent. In the Grand Line, travel is regulated by Log Pose, which requires time to attune to a given island and point to the next, but there exist Eternal Pose (always pointing at an island) and Vivre Cards (always pointing at a person) as well. With a suitable array of both you can navigate much more freely and probably follow more optimal routes - something a powerful pirate surely must be able to do. By comparison, the Strawhats are relative greenhorns who are still establishing a name for themselves and discovering the Grand Line's inner workings as they go. Pirates who rule it for years must have better ways of moving around than them.

* This frequently happens in the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' films, due to squashing down the events of the books (which followed a fairly realistic schedule for the journeys and distances involved, with events regularly being separated by days or weeks). The most glaring example is Gandalf's journey to Isengard in ''Fellowship'' where he manages to get to there before Frodo and Sam even leave the Shire after they depart Bag End at the same time(in the book, Frodo waits a few months before leaving the Shire after Gandalf's departure.) Another odd example is the film addition of the Marchwardens at Helm's Deep, which arrive right before the battle; meaning they would have had to leave Lorien right after the Fellowship and before they knew there was even going to be a battle. Elrond manages to get from hundred of miles away in Rivendell to Dunharrow just in time to give Aragorn the reforged Anduril. Likewise desite it being repeatedly mentioned that it takes three days to get to Minas Tirith from Edoras, Theoden and his army manage to make it in two days.
** Jackson's ''Film/TheHobbit'' film are even worse about this. In ''The Desolation of Smaug'' Gandalf manages to go from the borders of Mirkwood to Rhudaur on the other side of the Misty Mountains and then get back across them to Dol Guldur by the time Thorin's Companey leaves Mirkwood. He must have been using Eagles. Also Legolas and Tauriel somehow get from the Long Lake to Gundabad which is located hundreds of miles across Mirkwood at the top of the Misty Mountains and travel back to Dale in only a few days just before Bolg's army arrives(The only solution is to assume Gundabad is located at the tip of the Gray Mountains which makes the distance plausible)

* ''Series/CSICyber'' has a team based in Washington, D.C. which is able to travel to cities across the country and back again with no sense of urgency over the dozens of hours that would be lost in the process. In one notable instance the team managed to travel from Quantico to Tampa in the time it took a perp to finish his internet browsing session on a library computer.